Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico

Hodge, Frederick Webb, Compiler. The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Government Printing Office. 1906.

Massachuset Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Attacks, Crispus Attacks, Crispus. An Indian-Negro half-blood of Framingham, Massachusetts, near Boston, noted as the leader and first person slain in the Boston massacre of Mar. 5, 1770, the first hostile encounter between the Americans and the British troops, and therefore regarded by historians as the opening fight of the great Revolutionary struggle. In consequence of the resistance of the people of Boston to the enforcement of the recent tax laws a detachment of British troops had been stationed in the town, to the great irritation of the citizens. On Mar. 5 this feeling culminated in an attack on the … Read more

Maskegon Tribe

Maskegon Indians, Maskegon First Nation, Maskegon People, Swampy Crees (Mŭskīgōk, ‘they of the marshes or swamps.’- W. J. ). An Algonquian tribe so closely related to the Cree that they have appropriately been called a subtribe. According to Warren the Maskegon, with the Cree and the Monsoni, form the northern division of the Chippewa group, from which they separated about eight generations before 1850. The traders knew them as Swampy Crees. From the time the Maskegon became known as a distinct tribe until they were placed on reserves by the Canadian government they were scattered over the swampy region stretching … Read more

Mashpee Tribe

Mashpee Tribe

Mashpee Indians, Christian Indians, South Sea Indians (front masse-pee or missi-pi, ‘great pool.’-Kendall ). A former settlement on a reservation on the coast of Mashpee Township, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. The reservation was established in 1660 for the Christian Indians of the Vicinity, known as South Sea Indians, but it was afterward recruited from all south east Massachusetts, and even from Long Island. In 1698 they numbered about 285, and their population generally varied from 300 to 400 up to the 19th century. They intermarried with blacks and afterward with Hessians; in 1792 the mixed-bloods formed two-thirds of the whole body, and … Read more

Mascouten Tribe

Mascouten Indians (‘little prairie people,’ from muskuta (Fox) or mashcodé, (Chippewa), prairie’; ens, diminutive ending. By the Hurons they were called Assistaeronon, ‘Fire people,’ and by the French ‘Nation do Fen.’ These last names seem to have arisen from a mistranslation of the Algonquian term. In the Chippewa dialect ‘fire’ is ishkote, and might easily be substituted for mashkodé, ‘prairie’ ). A term used by some early writers in a collective and indefinite sense to designate the Algonquian tribes living on the prairies of Wisconsin and Illinois; LaSalle even includes some bands of Sioux under the name. The name (Mashkótens) … Read more

Martha’s Vineyard Tribe

Martha’s Vineyard Indians. Martha’s Vineyard island, off the south coast of Massachusetts, was called by the Indians Nope, or Capawac. These may have been the names of tribes on the island and the smaller islands adjacent. The Indians thereon were subject to the Wampanoag and were very numerous at the period of the first settlement, but their dialect differed from those on the mainland. They seem not to have suffered by the great pestilence of 1617. In 1642 they were estimated at 1,500. The Mayhews carried on active missionary work among them and succeeded in bringing nearly all of them … Read more

Mariposan Indians

Mariposan Family, Mariposan Tribes, Mariposan Stock, Yokuts Tribe, Yokuts Indians (adapted from Span. mariposa, ‘butterfly,’ the name of a county in California). The name applied by Powell to a linguistic stock of Indians, generally known as Yokuts, in San Joaquin valley, Cal. Their territory extended from the lower Sierra Nevada to the Coast range, and from mounts Pinos and Tehachapi to Fresno and Chowchilla Rivers. A separate body dwelt in the north, in a narrow strip of territory along the San Joaquin, between Tuolumne and Calaveras Rivers, about the site of Stockton. These were the Cholovone. The Coconoon, said to have … Read more

Marameg Tribe

Marameg Indians (from Man-um-aiq, Chippewa for ‘catfish:’- Verwyst). Evidently a band or division of the Chippewa, which seems to have been, at the dawn of the history of the upper lake region, in the process of disintegration. The first notice of them is that given by Dablon in the Jesuit Relation of 1670, at which time they resided on Lake Superior, apparently along the east half of the north shore. They were then in close union with the Sauteurs, or Chippewa of Sault Ste Marie. Dablon, speaking of the Chippewa of the Sault, says: “These are united with three other … Read more

Manso Tribe

Manso Indians (Span; ‘mild’) A former sedentary tribe on the Mexican frontier, near El Paso, Tex., who, before the coming of the Spaniards, had changed their former solid mode of building for habitations constructed of reeds and wood. Their mode of government and system of kinship were found to be the same as those of the Pueblos proper-the Tigurites, Piros, and Tewa, from whom their rites and traditions clearly prove them to have come. They are divided into at least  four clans-Blue, White, Yellow, and Red corn, and there are also traces of two Water clans. This system of clanship, … Read more

Manhattan Tribe

Manhattan Indians (‘the hill island,’ or ‘the island of hills,’ from manah ‘island’, –atin ‘hill.’ Tooker). A tribe of the Wappinger confederacy that occupied Manhattan Island and the east bank of Hudson river and shore of Long Island Sound, in Westchester County, New York. Early Dutch writers applied the name also to people of neighboring Wappinger tribes. The Manhattan had their principal village, Nappeckamack, where Yonkers now stands, and their territory stretched to Bronx river. From their fort, Nipinichsen, on the north bank of Spuyten Duyvil creek, they sallied out in two canoes to attack Hendrik Hudson when he returned … Read more

Mandan Tribe

Mandan Indians. A Siouan tribe of the northwest. The name, according to Maximilian, originally given by the Sioux is believed by Matthews to be a corruption of the Dakota Mawatani. Previous to 1830 they called themselves simply Numakiki, ‘people’ (Matthews). Maximilian says “if they wish to particularize their descent they add the name of the village whence they came originally.” Hayden gives Miah’tanēs, ‘ people on the bank,’ as the name they apply to themselves, and draws from this the inference that “they must have resided on the banks of the Missouri at a very remote period.” According to Morgan … Read more

Mandan Indian Bands, Gens and Clans

Many tribes have sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry.  Often very little information is known or they no longer exist.  We have included them here to provide more information about the tribes.   Histapenumanke. A Mandan band, the first, according to their mythology, to come above ground from the subterranean lake.

Manahoac Tribe

Manahoac Indians (Algonquian: ‘they are very merry.’ – Tooker). A confederacy or group of small tribes or bands possibly Siouan, in north Virginia, in 1608, occupying the country from the falls of the rivers to the mountains and from the Potomac to North Anna river. They were at war with the Powhatan and Iroquois, and in alliance with the Monacan, but spoke a language different from any of their neighbors.  Among their tribes Smith mentions the Manahoac, Tanxnitania, Shackaconia, Ontponea, Tegninateo, Whonkenti, Stegaraki, and Hassinunga, and says there were others.  Jefferson confounded them with the Tuscarora.  Mahaskahod is the only … Read more

Malecite Tribe

Malecite Indians. Various explanations of this name have been given. According to Chamberlain it is from their Micmac name Malisit, broken talkers ; Tanner gives the form as Mahnesheets, meaning ‘slow tongues’; Baraga derives it through the Cree from mayisit or malisit, the ‘disfigured or ugly foot’; Lacombe agrees with Baraga and gives the etymology as mayi or –mal, deformed, and sit, foot. Maurault’s explanation is radically different from all, as he says it is from Maroudit or Molouidit, ‘those who are of Saint Malo.’ Vetromile says it “comes from malike, which in old Abnaki and also in Delaware means … Read more

Makah Tribe

Makah Indians (‘cape people’). The southern most tribe of the Wakashan stock, the only one within the United States. They belong to the Nootka branch. According to Swan the Makah claimed the the territory between Flattery rocks, 15 miles south, and Hoko ruver, 15 miles east of Cape Flattery, Washington, also Tatoosh island., near the cape. Their winter towns were Baada, Neah, Ozette, Tzues, and Waatch; their summer villages, Ahchawat, Kiddekub and Tatooche. Gibbs mentions another, called Kehsidatsoos. They now have two reservations, Makah and Ozette, Washington, on which, in 1905, there were respectively 399 and 36, a total of … Read more

Maidu Tribe

Maidu Indians (‘man’, Indian’ ). A tribe formerly dwelling in Sacramento valley and the adjacent Sierra Nevada in California. This single tribe constitutes the entire Pujunan linguistic family of Powell, all the divisions of which called themselves Maidu, and distinguished themselves one from another by their local names only. The Maidu proper, comprising the divisions north of Bear river valley, were formerly considered a different stock from the Nishinam, who are now recognized as the southern branch of the family. The names of the Maidu villages and of the inhabitants were usually local place names. It maybe doubted if, in … Read more

Mahican Tribe

Mahican Indians (‘wolf’). An Algonquian tribe that occupied both banks of upper Hudson River, in New York, extending north almost to Lake Champlain. To the Dutch they were known as River Indians, while the French grouped them and the closely connected Munsee and Delawares under the name of Loups (‘wolves’). The same tribes were called Akochakaneñ (‘stammerers’ ) by the Iroquois. On the west bank they joined the Munsee at Catskill creek, and on the east bank they joined the Wappinger near Poughkeepsie. They extended north into Massachusetts and held the upper part of Housatonic valley. Their council fire was … Read more